MEDFORD, Ore. — An Oregon company wants to make a better way to give asthma medication to young children and they hope their idea will net the company a $200,000 Angel Investment.

Jettstream says if they win the Southern Oregon Angel Investment grand prize, it will help their start-up company and their clients breathe a little easier.

“Most older children and adults can easily take a puffer or an inhaler with reasonable technique, but in small children we can’t always rely on their technique to get the medication where it needs to be,” said Dr. Ken Parks at the Allergy and Asthma Center

When it comes to young children and asthma, the challenge is how best to treat it. The Allergy and Asthma Center of Southern Oregon says when kids are unable to use inhalers, the most common option is to use a nebulizer mask.

“As we turn the compressor on, the medication is then delivered, nebulized, and the child can essentially put this mask on their face for about 3 to 5 minutes,” said Dr. Parks.

A Bend company says there’s an easier way, and wants to give the whole process a breath of fresh air. Sarah Cota founded Jettstream to help treat her young son’s asthma.

“I just thought it was crazy that there wasn’t a better way to deliver asthma medication to toddlers,” said Sarah Cota. It’s really hard to get a toddler to sit there and be compliant and take his treatment as recommended, and I really struggled with it for a long, long time, and he was in and out of the hospital with asthma attacks.”

The company is patenting a system called the Jettpak, which helps deliver asthma medication while kids are asleep. Cota says it’s easier than having a young child use an inhaler or a nebulizer.

“Obviously it’s the only time children are completely compliant, and there’s no mask, so it never touches them and it never wakes them up,” Cota said.

Jettstream says winning the Angel Investment will help put the product out to more families who need it.

“There’s no fight, you just turn the machine on when they’re asleep and they get their medication then,” Cota explained.

Jettstream and the other four finalists for the Angel Investment will make their final pitch at the conference Thursday morning at Bigham Knoll in Jacksonville. The grand prize is a $210,000 investment.